Home > Business > The Wake Forest Gift That Keeps on Giving – No, It’s Not VD

The Wake Forest Gift That Keeps on Giving – No, It’s Not VD

September 26, 2013

Wake Forest is special in so many ways. Oh crap, that sounds like we are writing a puff piece. Let's try again. Wake Forest residents are the luckiest people on the planet. Damn, we did it again. How about Wake Forest is unique in many ways. Let's go with that. Yes, Wake Forest is special in many ways. One of those ways is a new shop that opened on August 19th called The Giving Tree. Leigh Grieco is to be blamed&hellip;

Review Overview

Concept

Design

Friendliness

100

The place rocks.

Summary : Supper inexpensive and community friendly.

User Rating: 2.45( 9 votes)

100

Wake Forest is special in so many ways. Oh crap, that sounds like we are writing a puff piece. Let’s try again. Wake Forest residents are the luckiest people on the planet. Damn, we did it again.

How about Wake Forest is unique in many ways. Let’s go with that. Yes, Wake Forest is special in many ways.

One of those ways is a new shop that opened on August 19th called The Giving Tree.

The very posh Leigh Grieco, instigator of this place, sitting in the beautiful Giving Tree.

Leigh Grieco is to be blamed (hugged) for the cute little house with the shop in it at 839 S. Main Street (see map at bottom), across from Wake Tire. You can get your tires rotated and oil changed and wander across the street to The Giving Tree to shop while you wait.

Leigh was involved with her daughter’s local school PTO and was interested in different ways of fund raising. And bless her for that. We don’t know how many more years we could take of kids selling wrapping paper and chocolate bars. And no, we refuse to buy a mattress to support any local school. That really happens.

For the more GPS challenged readers, look for this place on S. Main Street.

The idea behind the place is brilliantly simple as long as us Wake Forest Nutters can keep The Giving Tree in mind and remember to go there.

People donate nice stuff to The Giving Tree, a nonprofit organization, and they in turn sell the stuff at reasonable prices and subtract their modest operating costs. The remainder is donated to local schools. Leigh says that the remaining profits will be given at the end of each year and each June.

The first thing we noticed as we walked into the place was how awesome it would be to sit on their front porch, sip wine, and watch the world go by.

These chairs are made for sipping wine.

Word on the street is a wine tasting is planned for a ladies night out on October 17th. If we worked there we’d be doing test runs each evening.

As you enter The Giving Tree you will feel as if you’ve stepped into a beautifully decorated home of a friend. The only exception is everything is for sale.

We wanted to buy the restroom sign. Sadly it was already won as a prize in an earlier rock-paper-scissors contest.

The place is decorated in English Muffin style, every nook and cranny is in play. A trip through each room should take you at least twenty minutes to scour all the goodies.

In the interest of full disclosure, we bought something while we were there, in fact it was the print next to the bathroom sign. If we could not get the bathroom sign we’d literally get the next best thing.

And speaking of the bathroom, you absolutely must visit the bathroom when you go there. It’s gorgeous. Seriously, it is probably one of the most beautifully decorated bathrooms we’ve ever seen in Wake Forest. No joke. Our only regret is we actually forgot to take a picture of it for you. Fail.

Picture blooper.

In place of the bathroom picture we forgot to take we accidentally took this one for you as we got in the car after the interview. Double fail.

Nobody ever said we were skilled in any special way here at Wake Forest News. Certainly not in how to properly operate a camera. But maybe that’s actually the topic for another story.

Want to see a really artistic picture of our feet? No problem, we didn’t want to see it either but now we’ve got one of those also.

One newly relocated local resident has been in every week to buy since the store opened. The great customer, who is relocating from Tennessee is slowly decorating her new Wake Forest abode almost exclusively with items she’s purchasing here bit by bit. Shrewd.

Stepping into the place will shock you back in time. Immediate memory flashbacks of the scent of rose water and images of Lawrence Welk on a small black & white television with foil rabbit ears came flashing back. Too bad this place is a retail store, we’d love to live there and secretly think our grandmother did after Grampy Bubba died in that terrible Milk Duds accident all those years ago. It was a sad, sticky situation.

Time travel really does exist.

There is a kids room there also with a lot of really nice looking kids clothes, toys, and games available and scattered about the place are some very nice small furniture items at far too reasonable prices.

Those small furniture items apparently give the biggest donation punch for the purchase. If you look at the picture above the really nice wood table by the window and some chairs just sold for $200. Seriously, you can get really nice stuff in this place cheaper than Walmart.

Probably our most favorite item that we regret leaving for you to go snatch up was the massive pair of wooden candy corn earrings or whatever they were.

Sorry we missed you dear candy corn earrings, or fishing floats, or arrows missing a tail.

Hey look at it this way, we just left those cute little things for you, so go buy them. Besides, it’s a great way to shop guilt free. You’re not just spending money, you’re unleashing an internal civic duty to support kids in local underfunded schools. How’s that for a guilt trip? Nailed it.

Your abandonment of cash at The Giving Tree helps to benefit the Wake Forest community.

In lieu of cash to spend, please feel free to bring items to donate like cookware, art, small furniture items, a whole bunch of other items you can find listed here. Regrettably they are not interested in your moldy stuff, water damaged things, toxic items, unsafe goodies, chemical laden solvents, porn or weapons of any kind. Rats.